Accumulator for use in statistical machines



May 12, 1953 A. THOMAS ACCUMULATOR FOR USE IN STATISTICAL MACHINES 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Jan. 28, 1948 y 2, 1953 A. THOMAS2,638,275

ACCUMULATOR FOR USE IN STATISTICAL MACHINES Original Filed Jan. 28, 19484 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 12, 1953 A. THOMAS 2,638,275

ACCUMULATOR FOR USE IN STATISTICAL MACHINES Original Filed Jan. 28, 19484 Sheets-Sheet 3 1953 A. THOMAS 2,638,275

ACCUMULATOR FOR USE IN STATISTICAL MACHINES Original Filed Jan. 28, 19484 Sheets-Sheet 4 7 F/G. 6 -2; 4 29 5 3/ 2/ 4 4/32 I V /3e 35 Ai 'T// ,W&MP

3 M W flier/me 7/40/ 445 JLL/JMJ Patented May 12, 1953 ACCUMULATOR FORUSE IN STATISTICAL MACHINES Arthur Thomas, Wallington, England, assignorto Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Limited, London, England, a Britishcompany Original application January 28, 1948, Serial No.

Divided and this application January 18, 1950, Serial No. 139,270. InGreat Britain February 3, 1947 3 Claims.

This invention relates to accumulators in general, and in particular toan accumulator of the continuous or creep carry type.

The present application is a division of my copending application SerialNo. 4,765, filed January 28, 1948, now Patent No. 2,568,523 issuedSeptember 18, 1951.

A number of creep carry accumulators are known in which the carrymechanism comprises epicyclic gearing which by its nature, has to bearranged to allow for the one gear ratio factor that is added to orsubtracted from the revolution of the mechanism as a whole, owing to therotation of the whole unit. Thus, with epicyclic carry mechanisms,arrangements are made whereby during the carry one is deducted from theratio and a 9 to 1 gearing is, for example, employed to obtain a 10 to 1carry.

The disadvantage of the epicyclic forms of carry mechanism is that theyare limited in the uses to which they may be put. For example, thesecarry mechanisms are suitable for accumulator mechanisms operatingaccording to the decimal system, but are not suitable for accommodatingsterling amounts, due to the fact that in the carry from the tens ofshillings column to the units of pounds column the gearing is only 2 to1 and this type of carry only operates satisfactorily with higher gearreductions.

An object of the present invention is to provide a creep carryaccumulator which can be employed to register values according to thedecimal system, or according to the sterling system, or if desired,according to the avoirdupois weight system.

A further object of the invention is to provide an accumulator which,due to its construction can readily be manufactured and assembled, andwhich can also be made up from independent units of which each unitcomprises one digital column. This feature is especially useful in asterling accumulator, as, for example, in one instance it may berequired to register values including farthing amounts, while in anotherinstance values including only pence and shillings may be registered.

Still another object of the invention is to so construct each such unitthat the actuator for that digital column remains unchanged whether theunit befor adding twelfths as in the pence column, tenths as in theunits of shillings column, halves as in the tens of shillings column, orany other fractional amounts.

Another object of the invention is to make all of the units'thesame, thevariable elements being contained in the inter-order connecting gearing.

According to the invention thereis provided in each order of theaccumulator, an actuator, a differential cage meshing with the actuator,21. pair of intermeshing planetary gears carried by said cage, a sungear meshing with one of said planetary gears, a driving gear coaxialand rotatable with said sun gear, a resultant gear meshing with saiddriving gear, and a second sun gear rotated in accordance with the carryfrom lower orders in mesh with the second of said planetary gears.

The invention also contemplates the use of visible dials to indicate theamounts registered in the several orders of the accumulator, and wheresuch dials are utilized means are provided to ensure that fractionalcarry amounts are not registered thereon.

One other object of the invention is to so construct and arrange thedials and the carry repressing means as to prevent carry amounts frombeing indicated on the dials, simply and efii-' ciently, even thoughsaid amounts be registered on the resultant wheels of the accumulator.

Other objects and structural details of the invention will be apparentfrom the following description when read in connection with the ac-'companying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a statistical machinehaving the invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a plan of part of the accumulator in: dicated generally inFig. 1 by the reference letter A, the denominational order units beingshown diagrammatically;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of one of the accumulator units, some partsof the mechanism being broken away to show the integers normally hiddenbehind such parts, the unit illustrated being one employed for tens orhundreds of pounds;

Fig. 4 is a plan of the accumulator unit shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a perspective View from the rear of one of the accumulatorunits, the parts being shown diagrammatically and in partial explodeddisposition;

Fig. 6 is a section through the difierential gearing; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a detail showing compensating mechanismfor maintaining a figure on an indicating wheel in reading position.

The accumulator about to be described is shown as applied to astatistical machine (Fig. 1) substantially identical with the onedisclosed in British patent application No. 26,139/45 and only a' briefreference to the major features oi'that machine will be made herein.

In this machine, sterling amounts, assumed, in the present instance, tobe in shillings and pence, are sensed from perforated record cards andare transfered to accumulator mechanism as indicated by the referenceletter A in Fig. 1 at relatively high speed, to be registered therein inpounds, shillings and pence. For example, a sum of eighty threeshillings and nine pence sensed from a record card will be registered inthe accumulator as four pounds, three shillings and nine pence. Inkeeping with this mode of operation the accumulator, illustrateddiagrammatically in Fig. 2, comprises the following denominational ordersections; a pence section P, a

units of shillings section S, a tens of shillings section SI, a units ofpounds section L, a tens of pounds section Li, a hundreds of poundssection L2, and a thousands of pounds section L3.

In the machine of Fig. 1 record cards are fed 7 from a magazine It,beneath sensing pins I! mounted in a pin box 12 reciprocated by a lever13 and eccentric l4 driven from the main shaft I5 of the machine. Thepins, should they pass through perforations in a record card, transferthe information so sensed to flexible cables 15 which in turn operateplungers 11. These plungers cause pins on pivoted arms, not shown, butwhich are fully described along with the rest of the accumulatoractuating mechanism in the copending application of Arthur Thomas,Serial No. 700,711, to be projected through apertures 18 in a plate I9;and a pin so projected engages the tail 26 of a latching member for apawl 2|, tripping the latch and freeing the pawl 2| to engage with theratchet teeth of an accumulator wheel 22. There is an accumulator wheel22 associated with each of the denominational order sections abovedescribed.

To the rear face (as viewed in Fig. 1) of each accumulator wheel 22there is secured for rotation therewith a driving wheel 23 which mesheswith an idler gear 24.

From this point it will be convenient, for the present, to ignore thepence unit, as there is in the present instance no lower denominationalorder unit from which a carry is eifected to the pence unit, and thisunit, therefore, differs slightly from the remaining units, all of whichare similarly constructed. Reference to the construction of the penceunit will be made later.

Each of the idler gears 24 meshes with peripheral teeth on adifferential cage 25 (Figs. 3, 5, and 6) which is riveted or otherwisefastened to a flange 26 on a spindle 21 journaled in unit frame plates28 and 30. An annular bearing member 3| (Fig. 4) secured to the cage 25has positioned therein two short spindles 32 and 33 (Fig. 3) on whichare journaled a pair of intermeshing planetary gears 34 and 35,respectively, said planetary gears extending into apertures 29 in cage25 (Fig. 3). The intermeshing planetary gears 35 and 34 (Figs. 3, 5, and6) also mesh with first and second sun gears 36 and 31, respectively,the first sun gear being fixed on a collar 38 loose ly mounted onspindle 21, and the second sun gear 31 being mounted on a collar 45 tobe more fully described hereinafter. Also fixed to collar 38 is adriving gear 41 meshing with a resultant gear 42 which, as will becomeapparent hereinafter, indicates by its angular position the total of theinput and carry amounts accumulated in the denominational order of whichit is a part, but which, in the present instance, in order to make saidtotal visible, in turn meshes with a gear 43 fixed to an indicator dialby a sleeve 45 journaled on a spindle 46 (Fig. 7) carried in a bearingarm 41 pivoted at 48 to the frame plate 28.

, In operation, gear 24 imparts units of rotation to cage 25, which, thesecond sun gear 31 being considered as fixed for the present, causesplanetary gear 34 to roll around said sun gear. The rotation of gear 34,rotates gear 35 and through it the first sun gear 36. However, thebodily movement of gear 35 about the center of cage 25 also causesrotation of sun gear 36, so that the latter has imparted to it amultiple of the angular movement imparted to the cage by gear 24. In thepresent instance the ratios are such that planetary gears 34 and 35multiply the movements of the cage by two, so that sun gear 36 anddriving gear 4! which is fixed to rotate therewith, receive twice theangular displacement of the cage. As it is desired to rotate theresultant gear 42 in the ratio of 1 to l with the cage, however, saidresultant gear has a reduction ratio with the driving gear equal to thefactor by which the planetary gears multiply the movements of said cage,in the present instance 2 to 1, so as to compensate for themultiplication of cage movement by said planetary gears. The indicatorwheel 44 is preferably made with two sets of numerals and the gear 43,by which it is driven from the resultant wheel, is made with a number ofteeth appropriate to allow a one tooth movement of the resultant gear torotate the dial one digital space.

To effect the carry each resultant wheel 42 has a carry member 50projecting laterally and engaging in a slot 5| in a fiange 52 of asleeve 53, to which is also fixed the first gear 54 of a train ofreductiongearing which also includes an idle pinion 55 and a last gear56 fixed to the sleeve 40 and thereby to the second sun gear 31 in thenext higher denominational order.

Thus a fraction of the movement of one resultant wheel 42 is transmittedto the second sun gear 31 of next higher order, and thereby to theplanetary gears 34 and 35, the latter of which rotates the first sungear 36 and the driving gear 41 an amount equal to the rotation of thesecond sun gear. It will be remembered that driving gear 4! is, in thepresent instance, in the ratio of 1 to 2 with the resultant gear, whichresults in that the carry movements transmitted to the driving gear fromthe resultant wheel of lower order are halved in passing from saiddriving gear to the resultant gear meshing therewith. In view of this,the inter-order reduction gearing is provided with a ratio equal to halfthe carry ratio between the two orders. For example, if it is desired tocarry tenths, the re-' duction ratio is 5 to 1, for twelfths it is 6 to1-, for halves as between the tens of shillings and units of poundsorders his 1 to 1.

In operation the second sun gear 31 instead of being fixed as assumedabove, may be rotating due 'to a carry from the lower order, so that asplanetary gear 34 rolls around said sun gear due to an input to cage 25,the rate of rotation of said planetary gear on its axis is momentarilyincreased. Thus the planetary gear pair multiplies the movements of cage25 and transmits the carry at the same time.

When the mechanism is in operation, therefore, the carry is continuousand means are provided to ensure that the indicator wheels 44 (Figs. 3,5, and 7) read correctly, that is to say, they stand at whole numberpositions only, not at some fractional distance between two characters.For this purpose each indicator wheel is, as mentioned above, supportedby a pivoted arm 41, which as presently to be described, permits offractional counter rotative movements of said wheel. To ensure that thegear 43, by which the dial is driven from the resultant wheel 42, doesnot disengage from said resultant gear, the axis of the pivot 48 of arm41 is located in the plane containing the axes of the resultant wheel 42and the indicator gear 43 (Fig. 3). A compensating cam 57 (Fig. 7)having, in instances where the indicator wheel has twenty characters(two sets of characters -9), two peripheral steps, is secured to theindicator dial. The peripheral surface of the cam rises gradually fromthe bottom of each of said steps to the top of the other step. Engagingwith the periphery of cam 51 is a follower roll '58 carried by one armof a bellcrank 60 pivoted at 6|. The other arm of the bell-crank hassecured thereto a pin 62 which engages the arm 4'! of next higher order.By these means, as the indicator wheel is rotated and the carry iseffected to the next order, the cam 51' gradually rocks the bell-crank60 about its pivot 5| and the pin 62 rocks the arm 4! of the next higherorder counter-clockwise in Fig. 7 a distance suiiicient to compensate,by the rolling of the indicator gear on the resultant gear, for thefractional rotation on the dial due to the carry. Thus a character onthe indicator wheel remains in reading position during the passage ofthe indicator wheel of lower order from 0 to 9. However, as said lowerorder wheel passes from 9. to 0, the roll 58 falls from the high to thelow point of cam 51, so that the pin 62 suddenly disengages the arm 41of the next higher unit and the said arm drops clockwise a distancesufficient to rotate the associated dial one digital space and presentthe next higher character in reading position.

A sample operation of the units of the accumulator mechanism will now bedescribed with reference to the units of pounds unit, the tens of poundsunit, and the hundreds of pounds unit, it being understood, however,that the other denominational units also operate in the manner about tobe described.

First, let it be assumed that the values three, five, and seven are tobe entered in the tens of pounds unit, which is initially set at zero,and that no carry is being effected from the units of pounds column. Inthis case the pawl 2| (Fig. 1) first feeds the accumultaor wheel 22 adistance of three teeth and the driving gear 23 and idler 24 are turnedthrough corresponding angular distances. The sun gear 31 (Fig. 5)between the tens of pounds unit and the units of pounds unit is heldagainst rotation by the resultant wheel of the latter unit so that themovements transmitted to the tens of pounds cage 25 by gear 24 cause theplanetary gear 34 to roll around said sun gear, and through gears 35,36, and 4| to enter the value three into the tens of pounds resultantwheel 42. Setting the resultant wheel to three, of course, rotates dial44 through gear 43, and three is indicated thereon at the readinposition. During the rotation of the tens of pounds resultant Wheel, thepin 50 thereon rotates the flange 5| associated with the first gear 54of the hundreds of pounds unit so that the hundreds of pounds resultantwheel is moved from zero to zero and three tenths. Due, however, to theaction of the compensating cam 51 on the tens of pounds indicator dialand its associate bell-crank 50, the zero registered on the hundreds ofpounds indicator wheel remainsv in reading position. The rotation of theresultant gear 42 in the hundreds of pounds unit is efiected through thetrain of reduction gears 54, 55, and 56, of which gear 54 is the first.gear and gear 56 the last gear. The latter rotates the sun gear 31 whichin turn rotates the planetary pinion 34 of the hundreds of pounds unit.The pinion 34 rotates the other planetary pinion 35 and this, in turn,rotates the sun gear 36 which, being coupled with the gear 4|, efiectsrotation of the resultant wheel of hundreds of pounds unit.

When during the next cycle the values five entered, the gears operate asjust described, but with the result that the tens of pounds indicatorwheel is rotated a further five teeth to register an eight in thereading position and the resultant wheel of the hundreds of pounds unitis turned from zero and three tenths to zero and eight tenths, but thezero on the hundreds of pounds indicator dial remains in readingposition.

During the third cycle, upon entering seven the gear 43 on the indicatordial of the tens of pounds unit is turned a further seven teeth with theresult that the indicator is turned to register a five in the readingposition. The rotation of the seven teeth of gear 43, is, of course,continuous, but as zero registers on the indicator wheel the roll 58 onbell-crank 60 (Fig. 7) drops suddenly over the step on cam 51 with theresult that the arm 34 carrying the indicator wheel of the hundreds ofpounds unit drops back and this indicator wheel registers a one in thereading position. At the end of the cycle, when the seven has beenentered and the five appears on the tens of pounds indicator dial, theindicator wheel of the hundreds of pounds unit shows a one in the readinposition but its associate resultant wheel registers one and fivetenths.

Let it now be assumed that the indicator wheel of the tens of poundsunit registers three and that a four is being entered simultaneouslywith a carry from the units of pounds column.

In this instance, the tens of pounds unit will be operated in the mannerjust described above in so far as the registration of the four isconcerned, but while the cage 25 is rotating to eflect this registrationthe planetary gears 34 and 35 (Fig. 5) are being positively driven bythe last gear 56 of the train of reduction gearing associated with theunits of pounds column, with the result that the angular velocity ofgear 4| is momentarily increased and a five is entered into theresultant wheel instead of a four. Thus, the number registered on theindicator wheel of the tens of pounds unit at the end of this cycle iseight.

Any suitable means may be used to restore the accumulator to zero, thatshown in the drawing being a preferred one. This means is fullydisclosed in the copending application of Arthur Thomas, filed January28, 1948, S. N. 4,765, but will be referred to briefly herein as an aidto an understanding of the present invention.

The lateral face of each resultant wheel 42 (Fig. 3) is provided with aplurality of equi spaced studs 63 for cooperation with a pawl 64 pivotedat 65 to an arm 65 itself loosely pivoted about the axis of theresultant wheel. The angular spacing of the studs is determined by theamounts being registered on the resultant wheel, for example, if tenthsare being registered, the studs are located in radial alignment withevery tenth tooth space of the wheel, if twelfths are being registered,in radial alignment with every twelfth.

tooth space, etc. The pawl 64 is normally drawn into position forengagement with a stud 63 by a spring 6'! connecting the pawl with arm66, but as the wheel rotates the studs cam the pawl outward in passingit. To zeroize the accumulator the arms 66 are rocked counter-clockwiseabout their pivots in rapid succession beginning with the wheel oflowest order, while the machine is at rest. As the arm rocks, the pawlmoves up to, engages, and moves alon with it, the stud 63 which standsin its path, the amount of movement of the pawl being fixed to rotatethe resultant wheel to a zero position. The means for rocking each arm66 include a rearwardly extending link 88 which is connected by anotherlink 10 (Fig. 1) to a Geneva movement arrangement on a zeroizing shaft Hwhich is rotated by hand at the appropriate times through a handle 12.

While there is above described but one embodiment of the invention, itis possible to produce still other embodiments without departure fromthe inventive concept abov disclosed, and it is, therefore, desired thatonly such limitations shall be imposed on the appended claims as arestated therein, or required by the prior art.

What I claim as new, and, desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In each order of a crawl carry accumulator the combination of anactuator, a differential cage meshing with said actuator, a pair ofintermeshing planetary gears carried by said cage, a sun gear meshingwith one of said planetary gears, a driving gear coaxial and rotatablewith said sun gear, a resultant gear meshing with said driving gear, anda second sun gear rotated by the movement of the resultant gear of thenext lower order in accordance with the carry from lower orders, in meshwith th second of said planetary gears.

2. In each order of a crawl carry accumulator the combination of anactuator, a difierential cage meshing with said actuator, a pair ofintermeshing planetary gears carried by said cage, a sun gear meshingwith one of said planetary gears, a driving gear coaxial and rotatablewith said sun gear, a resultant gear meshing with said driving gear, asecond sun gear coaxial with the first said sun gear and in mesh withthe second of said planetary gears, and a train of reduction gears, thefirst gear of which is coupled to the resultant gear of the next lowerorder and the last gear of which is coaxial and rotatable with saidsecond sun gear.

3. In a crawl carry accumulator the combination in each order of anactuator, a differential cage moved through differential angulardistances by said actuator, a pair of planetary gears carried by saidcage, a sun gear meshing with one of said planetary gears and movedthereby through a multiple of the angular distances moved by said cage,a driving gear coaxial and rotatable with said sun gear, a resultantgear meshing with said driving gear and moved thereby throughdifferential distances equal to those of said cage, and a second sungear rotated by the movement of the resultant gear of the next lowerorder to receive the carry from lower order, meshing with the second ofsaid planetary gears.

ARTHUR THOMAS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 484,814 Osborn Oct. 25, 1892 1,349,049 Crumpton Aug. 10, 19201,356,916 Gumprecht Oct. 26, 1920 1,913,983 Gardner June 13, 19332,089,682 Chase Aug. 10, 1937 2,214,029 Mixer Sept. 10, 1940 2,344,627Mixer Mar. 21, 1944 2,405,626 Williams Aug. 13, 1946 2,482,935 RastSept. 2'7, 1949

